Winchester City put the frighteners on Gosport Borough in the Hampshire Senior Cup quarter final at Privett Park last night but thanks to two late Lee Wort goals the Conference South side came away 5-2 winners.

Adam ‘Taz’ Roberts gave City an early lead before Paco Saez levelled to make it 1-1 at half time.

Paul Masters’ side, who play three levels below, continued to make a great account of themselves and levelled again through the prolific Warren Bentley’s header after Rory Williams gave Boro the lead.

It all came undone for a youthful Winch side that are chasing the Sydenhams Premier Division crown, as a late push saw Wort hit twice and ex-Saints striker Matt Paterson bury the tie with a late effort.

“It was good, we had a few youngsters out there and I thought they did really well,” said Masters, reflecting on the game.

“I’m a little bit disappointed. When we went 3-2 down, I think we got a little bit ragged, a bit of tiredness came in with some of the youngsters.

“I was telling them that you need to keep your shape a little bit better when you go behind, you’ve always got a chance of staying in the game.

“We’re not happy to lose any game of football at the moment as we’re on a really good run but at the end of the day it’s probably the least of our priorities.

“The league is our priority, so it was a good learning curve.”

Boro boss Alex Pike, on his 500th game in charge, named an altered but strong side from the 1-1 draw at Basingstoke on Saturday. Masters, with a number of players cup tied, threw in young goalkeeper Shaun Weetch.

He did extremely well, too, tipping over Adam Wilde’s early swerving long ranger and, on the half hour, showed superb reactions to keep out Sam Pearce’s point-blank header.

The Citizens played far prettier football than their Conference South opponents, who resorted to clunky long balls at times.

Typical of Winch’s style, they played the flanks well and passed it around. On 17 minutes, during a good team move, prolific goal-scorer Bentley dummied a pass that was running square across the edge of the box.

Roberts was alert to his team-mate’s cunning plan and with a first time shot, slotted home into the bottom left of the goal past the diving Nathan Ashmore.

City were buoyant after that but Boro demonstrated their incisiveness that has taken them to a play-off pushing position in the Conference South to make it 1-1.

A cracking cross from former Folland Sports attacker Williams was like a magnet to Saez’s head. The Spanish wizard, with a well timed run, planted his header top right of the net past Weetch.

Winchester refused to lay down, with Bentley having a couple of great chances. Despite that pressure Gosport took the lead through Williams’ diving header from an excellent Wilde corner.

Many would have assumed that Boro would have taken control at that point but, just past the hour, Winchester levelled as Bentley planted a composed header into the net from a Liam Robinson cross.

As tiredness set in, Boro took advantage. Wort slotted home a composed goal. He went one-on-one and waited for the inexperienced Weetch to go to ground.

And when he did, Wort just simply passed into the net deep on the right of the box.

The ex-Boatmen, who has been limited to games off the bench this term, then put the game to bed as he powered through on the right of the box.

Wort looked up and slammed into the far right of the net. Paterson, on as a late sub, then wriggled space in the box and hit bottom right past Weetch to down City.

Winchester City: Shaun Weetch, Adam Tomasso, Dominic Cope, Stuart Green (c), Luke Dempsey, Chris Mason (Ryan Holloway 82), Adam Roberts, Micky Hubbard, Zach Glasspool (Liam Robinson 29), Warren Bentley, Geoff Dunn. Subs not used: Callum Cason, Harrison Fay, Dan Spreadbury.

Gosport Borough: Nathan Ashmore, Curtis Da Costa (Dan Wooden 28), Andy Forbes, Tom Dunford, Robbie Matthews, Sam Pearce (c), Paco Saez, Steve Ramsey, Lee Wort, Rory Williams (Matt Paterson 82), Adam Wilde (Matt Benham 79). Subs not used: Brett Poate, Justin Bennett.